The present invention relates to reliability engineering, more particularly to computer-related and network-related methods and systems for integrating data pertaining to reliability engineering.
Reliability engineering is engineering that focuses upon reliability (dependability) in the lifecycle management of mechanical systems and components. Reliability concerns the ability of a system or component to function properly under given conditions for a quantified period of time. Many commercial and military entities seek to balance maintenance needs versus practical constraints with regard to their machinery and equipment.
The United States Navy endeavors to modernize and sustain an aging fleet and to achieve target numbers of ships. As the Navy transitions, many facets of operations and maintenance are impacted. Mission requirements are expanding, while resources (e.g., manpower, money, and time) are diminishing. The accessing of necessary maintenance data is time-consuming, and data is not readily available in a particular shipboard system for a user to access.
The Navy uses diverse legacy maintenance systems and databases that support execution of shipboard work. The Navy's maintenance systems and databases include, inter alia, the following: Maintenance Engineering Library Server (MELS); Integrated Condition Assessment System (ICAS); Organizational Maintenance Management System—Next Generation (OMMS-NG); Planned Maintenance System, planned/preventative maintenance scheduling software (PMS, SKED); Regional Maintenance Automated Information System (RMAIS); Maintenance and Material Management System (3M); Ship Configuration and Logistic Information System (SCLSIS); Integrated Class Maintenance Plan (ICMP); Configuration Data Managers Database-OA (CDMD-OA); Maximo® (IBM's asset management software); maintenance replacement rate (MRR) data; condition-based maintenance (CBM) data.
The many maintenance informational groupings (e.g., maintenance systems and maintenance databases) of the Navy are “separate” in the sense that they may use or share data from or with each other, but they are not linked or coupled directly with each other. The Navy's conventional approach to all-encompassing maintenance documentation requires manual data searches and entries that are numerous, inefficient, unwieldy, and repetitive due to the multiplicity of legacy maintenance systems that are required to be used in execution of such maintenance documentation. Current Navy integration of various maintenance systems involves paper printouts filled out by hand (e.g., paper printed spiral bound books), and manual data transfer among the systems. These conventional methods for comprehensive maintenance documentation are exceptionally labor-intensive, particularly as they require ship's force to investigate machinery field correlation before creating a work candidate.